Best Poutine in Toronto

Ah poutine...the French Canadian guilty pleasure of French fries, cheese curds and gravy. Whenever we come up to Canada (specifically Toronto and Montreal), we seek out this comfort food. While Montreal boasts plenty of establishments that serve poutine, Toronto only has a few places of her own.

Luckily, Smoke's Poutinerie recently opened in downtown Toronto. Open until 4 AM, we can definitely imagine how crowded the small restaurant can get with the late-night crowd. We stopped by on a Saturday afternoon. There are lots of choices, from the Traditional poutine ($6.95 CAD/approx $5.50 USD) to even 3 different vegetarian options (using vegetable gravy, starting at $5.95 CAD/approx $4.75 USD).

We chose the Hog Town (Toronto's nickname, $8.95 CAD/approx $7 USD): French Fries, cheese curds, gravy, roasted mushrooms, double smoked bacon, Italian sausage, and carmelized onions. We shared one portion of this massive snack. The mushrooms and onions were very tasty. Of course we loved the sausage and bacon (everything tastes better with bacon!) The hand cut fries were well seasoned and the cheese curds melted perfectly with all of our toppings. The gravy was ok, but a little starchy and flavour wise, not the best we have ever had in our poutine.











Smoke's Poutinerie's version is good, but still comes in second to our all-time favourite poutine place (above photo) that is found in Montreal: La Banquise. Whenever we are in Toronto, however, we will continue to check out the other offerings at Smoke's. We are looking forward to trying the Pulled Pork Poutine ($8.95 CAD/approx $7 USD; their #1 best seller) the next time we are in town.

Smoke's Poutinerie is located at 218 Adelaide St. W (in the Entertainment District, near St. Andrew's subway station).